JOURNALIST: On-AIR+OnLINE+IN PRINT

LEE POWELL

HOW IT HAPPENED
I could have titled this "How I got the story." But storytelling at this scale is rarely about just you; it's a team effort, from managers and editors to videographers, designers and tape editors. I have been a producer, collaborator, facilitator, coordinator - and yes, sometimes a doer to make the story happen or get it to the finish line.

STORY PHILOSOPHY

What Are We Making? ➡ The Story

Who Are We Making It For? ➡ The Audience
How Are They Finding It? ➡ The Delivery Platform

But sometimes, a good story is a good story. As a storyteller, you set it up - and then get out of the way,

Here's how I tell stories:

FIND A NEW WAY

Taking an episodic storytelling approach helps build anticipation for the audience, provides them a roadmap, and takes a big story and makes it small, digestible, understandable.

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The Patrol                                              Starting Up                                            The Call

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TELL IT A DIFFERENT WAY

Sometimes, telling the story demands a different approach to meet audiences where they are. Blending text with video, imagery and graphics and making it seamless remains a work in progress. 

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Bell Blog                                    

                                                  White Paper                       Lithium Immersive

                                                                                                                                                                   Tofurky on Instagram

RIGHT STORY, RIGHT MOMENT

We had all the elements to tell the Army aviation story of the moment. These elements just needed order and immediacy to hit at the right time, with 94,000 YouTube views and counting. And a grand opening event was created in almost real time, from script assembly to fast editing.

MV-75                                                              Bell Wichita fuselage assembly

BUILD AROUND MOMENTS

At :15, Drew gets a call that tells the whole story in a moment. As a storyteller, you live for surprises, reveals, hooks, cliffhangers that keep the audience watching.

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Drew call                                                          I flew this helicopter with my fingers

STICK WITH IT

This story took five years to tell, including multiple trips to Montana and Canada and days, not just nights, at the museum.

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The Nation's T. Rex

SEE THE BIGGER STORY

What started as an e-mail pitch about a robot grew into a story around how a beloved Washington institution was still coping with a years-past earthquake.

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A Robot is Carving the National Cathedral

GET TO KNOW YOUR STORY

To tell a story well, you must become a subject matter expert. I was based in Washington but took five trips to Texas during the campaign to get to know my story.

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On the Trail with Beto

SEE MORE of my storytelling here